As a result of recent expansion in the use of polyester resin made bottles as well as various trays and other containers derived from polyester sheets, such polyester products are now destined to be domestic wastes, which are discharged in large quantities. From the efficient resource utilization and environmental protection viewpoints, it is very important to recover useful polyester resins from such large quantities of domestic wastes and reuse them, namely to recycle useful polyester resins. To recover and reuse products below standards as obtained in polyester sheet molding is also important from the cost reduction viewpoint.
For producing sheets (the term "sheet" as used herein means that it has a thickness of not less than 125 .mu.m) from a fresh polyester resin material, said polyester resin should generally have an intrinsic viscosity (.eta.) of not less than 0.70 and a moisture content of not higher than 50 ppm so that sufficient moldability can be assured. Essentially, thermoplastic resins are regenerable even after molding or forming thereof. In actuality, however, heating and other effects which occur in the process of molding and heating cause marked decreases in moldability resulting from decreases in physical characteristics, for example in intrinsic viscosity. Thus, for example, polyester resins recovered after molding or forming generally have a reduced intrinsic viscosity of 0.45 to 0.70 and a moisture content of about 2,000 to 3,000 ppm.
When sheets produced using such recovered polyester resins are subjected to vacuum forming, the so-called draw-down (sagging of sheets) takes place during said forming, making it impossible to give containers or giving unsatisfactorily shaped containers. Raw material polyesters having a moisture content exceeding 50 ppm cannot be processed into sheets because the viscosity decreases as a result of hydrolysis during molding.
Therefore, in the prior art, it is necessary, for forming polyester sheets into containers, to select a polyester resin having an intrinsic viscosity of not less than 0.70 and, furthermore, to reduce the moisture content to a level not higher than 50 ppm. For such a moisture content reduction, batchwise heating and drying at 140.degree. to 160.degree. C. for about 4 to 6 hours is required, which results in increases in production cost.
It is an object of the present invention to provide polyester sheets suited for forming into various containers by using low-viscosity polyesters, such as recovered polyesters or polyesters below standards. Another object of the invention is to provide a method of producing such polyester sheets. A further object of the invention is to provide containers formed from such polyester sheets.